Resignation is the only choice for Congressman Radel

November 27, 2013

As a local father, husband, and businessman, my heart and prayers go out to you and your family. It is my sincerest hope that you are able to find help and healing from the hell on earth that addiction visits on those who are affected by it. I have seen the fruits of addiction first hand in my work and personal life. It is never something to take lightly. The only road to successful healing is one that involves your whole being, and one that heals your family, yourself and your relationships. Do not be remiss in seeking God's forgiveness and healing as a part of this process before you.

As a person who follows local politics, I watched your meteoric rise with some trepidation. You certainly hit on all of the hot button issues. You spoke a message of conservatism. This is a message which many in this community feel is an appropriate response to the encroachments of the growing modern state. The voting members of our community entrusted that task to your care. They respected the words which you articulated and they expected you to live up to those words with your deeds.

It is of vital importance that those who would lend their voice and their representation to a community which lives its values to also live those values. I cannot emphasize this point enough. Failure to live and love the positions which you espouse is to fail to live at all. To cleave one's personal life off from one's public life is a sure path to destruction. I pray that this lesson served in so public a manner will alert and inform our voting public and those who choose to represent them in the future. Our community's values are displayed as hypocritical and out of touch when our elected representative shows himself to be hypocritical and out of touch.

I cannot live hypocritically. I cannot say one thing and then do another. It is not possible to live a double standard such as this. Therefore, regrettably, I ask that you resign your position, so that someone who lives the values of this community can replace you. Doing so will help restore your relationship with the community and provide you and the community an important tool for healing and rebuilding of trust. There is little choice in the matter.